YCI’s Volunteer Action Network facilitates youth-identified grassroots projects aimed at developing creative ideas and policy solutions to pressing global and local issues and provides a supportive platform from which to nourish those ideas into action!

• Extreme Poverty
• HIV/AIDS
• Environmental Sustainability
• Youth Leadership
• Canada’s Foreign Policy

• How do I get involved?
• What would I be doing?
• What have groups done in the past?
• How much time would I need to contribute?
• Where can I get more information?





How do I get involved? Applying for the VAN is easy. Download the VAN Personal Information Form here, print it, fill it out, and send it in to generalinfo@yci.org, by fax to 416-504-3376, or by mail to the YCI Toronto office.  At the next meeting of the Volunteer Advisory Council, your application will be reviewed.  The VAC will work towards placing you with a team working on a topic of interest to you.




What would I be doing? VAN teams are self-directed, so the content of your work will be up to yourself and your fellow volunteers! Teams devise their own schedules for meetings and establish their own goals. Regardless of what methodologies they use, all teams are required to develop a project action plan in order to keep the team on topic and focused on their goals.




What have groups done in the past? VAN teams draw on the strengths of their members to design and complete unique projects.  Past VAN accomplishments include holding an art competition on social issues, publishing a magazine with a focus on food security and holding information sessions related to their topic.




How much time would I need to contribute? Time commitment to a VAN team can be flexible.  Some VAN teams have members living in different parts of Canada and the world, and meetings can take place via conference call or through Taking IT Global, a social networking site.




Where can I get more information? Please contact us if you have any other questions: generalinfo@yci.org